Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Villari’s Bakery is another perfect example of how you can find great pizza in Philly out of a traditional pizzeria setting. They are located at 2134 South 10th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19148. Villari’s Bakery has been around since 1970 and continues to be very popular in Little Italy, South Philadelphia. They are a very tiny bakery run by an Italian family. Their operation is very small scale. The man who owns the place, Mr. Villari, serves many roles including baker and cashier. It appears that he only bakes a small amount of product at a time.

Villari’s Bakery is not a sit it or delivery operation. You buy and leave but mostly not without a good conversation, Italian style. The owner is very friendly and is always full of smiles.

Villari’s Bakery only sells bread and pizza (not pastries). The pizza that he sells is very limited in scope. I have only seen 3 types for sale: plain tomato pie square, plain tomato pie round, and white pizza (no cheese) round.

I ordered the tomato pie square and the white pizza. The crust on their pizza is very similar. There aren’t any signs of char just nice soft crust (this is the baker’s touch).

The slices on the square tomato pizza are about 4 by 6 inches (that is a guess considering I didn’t bring my ruler). The tomato sauce is a thin spread of sweet tomato sauce across the top of the crust. It is a thin coat of tomato sauce but yet not too thin (a little similar to New York Italian Bakery). The sauce has an undertone of various spices (possibly oregano and parmesan cheese). There isn’t any cheese on this pizza or any other of Villari’s pizzas either.

The round pizza is a 4-6 inches in diameter personal pizza that has an irregular shape around the edges. The white pizza is very interesting because there isn’t any cheese and yet the pizza tastes really good. In the center of the pizza are small slices of spices mostly chopped garlic pieces. There is also a thin coat of olive oil that is spread on top. The final effect is a really good pizza.

The best part about this pizza is that it only costs about $1.50 for both slices that I ordered. Do you realize how cheap that is in America today? This same pizza if sold in a fancy uptown coffee or pizza shop would range from $3-$5 a slice. Here we have 2 slices for half the price of 1 fancy pizzeria and the taste is so much better and fresher (they are baked fresh everyday).

Villari’s Bakery is another great example of great pizza in Philly that the tourists don’t know much about. Villari’s Bakery – welcome to the Best Philadelphia Pizza Club!